Tony Jaa joins ‘Fast and Furious 7’

The Fast and Furious series is one of the feathers in Universal’s cap, earning a collective $2.3 Billion worldwide. The seventh movie in the series is being fast tracked for a 2014 release and now a new action star is joining the fun, Thailand’s Tony Jaa.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the story about Jaa joining the series and his entry in Fast and Furious 7 would mean he is making his English language and studio movie debut. Jaa is best known for his work in the Ong-Bak trilogy and The Protector (AKA Warrior King and Tom-Yum-Goong). He is known as one of the best martial artist stars in the world, bringing Muay Thai to an international audience and helping increase the profile of the Thai film industry. Ong-Bak is considered necessary viewing for action fans due to its stunt work.

Recruiting Jaa is another coup for the Fast and Furious which has already had the likes of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Gina Carano and The Raid Redemption’s Joe Taslim. The big risk is Jaa’s language skill but as a fan I am excited to see him in a Hollywood movie. There is no word yet on whether Jaa is set to play a good guy or a bad guy.

James Wan of Insidious and The Conjuring fame is replacing Justin Lin in the director’s chair and long-time writer Chris Morgan is currently writing the screenplay. Jason Statham is set to play the villain of the piece.